By A Correspondent- On October 7, The Herald reported that President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had ranked Zimbabwe “among countries that instituted better mitigatory measures against the deadly disease (coronavirus)”.

According to the report: “Zimbabwe has been ranked number 102 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The rankings were crafted in such a manner that countries in the single digit category did not do well in fighting the pandemic while those with double digits did better and those with three digits did well.”

The newspaper quotes Mnangagwa, addressing business leaders who were donating towards Ekusileni Hospital, as saying: “Those with single digits didn’t do well. Those with double digits were better than those with single digits but Zimbabwe goes to the three digits. We are number 102.”

The Herald further quotes Mnangagwa saying that the “US was on number 1, Brazil 2, Russia 3, India 4, Britain 5 and South Africa 7” on this claimed ranking.

No evidence of WHO ranking

ZimFact could not find any evidence of such a ranking by the WHO.

The WHO publishes a live dashboard of global coronavirus cases. The dashboard provides an up-to-date tally of coronavirus cases around the world, based on data from governments. It also shows the most affected countries by number of confirmed cases.

As at October 11, the US had the highest number of cases with over 7 583 748 cases, followed by India with just over 7 million cases. Other countries listed among the 12 most affected are Brazil, Russia, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, France and the United Kingdom.

The WHO does not, however, rank how countries have handled the pandemic, as claimed by Mnangagwa.

Conclusion
Mnangagwa’s claim that Zimbabwe has been ranked among the countries that have responded better to COVID-19 is false. There is no evidence of any such ranking by the WHO.